Top Beachcomber dies at 67

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For fans of CBC's The Beachcombers there was only one way the show could ever
really be cancelled.

And yesterday it was.

Actor Bruno Gerussi is dead of an apparent heart attack. He was 67.

His son Rico, an assistant director on CBC's Side Effects, said his father died
at the Vancouver home of his longtime companion, former judge Nancy
Morrison.

Although in good health for most of his life, Gerussi had suffered a mild heart
attack three weeks ago and admitted himself to hospital. "It was so mild, he
thought he was suffering bronchial problems," Rico said. "They kept him in for
a week for observation and then they released him. He kind of considered it a
wakeup call. He'd stopped smoking, although he cheated a bit."

For 18 years, Gerussi was best-known to Canadians as The Beachcombers' gruff
Nick Adonidas, fulltime log salvager on the B.C. shoreline, and ringleader of a
coterie of earthy characters - Relic, Jesse, Molly et al - that more than a
million Canadians adopted as friends.

The show was cancelled amid controversy five years ago, after a first-time
schedule change saw its audience drop off sharply in only one season. An angry
Gerussi said at the time that moving the show from its regular Sunday slot with
little publicity was "very much like sending your kid to the corner store for a
quart of milk and while he's gone you move out of the house."

"They haven't replaced it with anything of substance, just with trashy American
stuff," Gerussi said in 1991 after the series ended.

Gruff and expansive like his character, Gerussi was "edgy, and at the same time
he was capable of acts of great kindness that he didn't want you to know
about," says CBC spokesperson David McCaughna, who was The Beachcombers
publicist for seven years.

"He was one of those people who loved life so much, you thought he would be
around forever. He had a beautiful house in Gibsons with a 360-degree view, he
had wonderful art, a big garden. His hobby was wood sculpture. He loved his
world."

Rico said his father was "semi-retired" since The Beachcombers' cancellation.
"He'd do (small roles) for American movies that were shooting in B.C. He did a
television pilot called Atomic Tommy last year. He did a play, a comedy called
Breaking Legs in Vancouver last year. And he was a great golfer."

Born in Medicine Hat, Alta., Gerussi grew up in New Westminster, B.C. He
attended the Banff School of Fine Arts and in 1954 joined the Stratford
Festival, where he became one of its leading actors through the '50s, with his
larger-than-life interpretations of Shakespearian characters.

Before The Beachcombers made him a household name in Canada, Gerussi was host
of his own CBC radio show for four years, a precursor to Morningside, that
focused on Gerussi's interests and slices of life. Later he also hosted the
CBC's Celebrity Cooks.

Gerussi is survived by Rico, a daughter Tina (a Toronto casting director) and
six grandchildren.